Ubisoft announces the release of
financial results (Adobe Acrobat format) for their fiscal year 2013, saying their
numbers for the year are "at the upper end of the recently-raised target
ranges." They report annual sales are up 18% to €1,256 million and non-IFRS
operating income is up 79% to €100 million. The results include perspective from
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot:

"In 2012-13 our financial performance
outstripped the targets that we had announced a year ago, notably with non-IFRS
operating income up 79% and higher-than-expected cash generation. The expertise
and talent of our teams enabled Ubisoft to manage the year’s difficult market
conditions and the drop in the casual segment remarkably well. In addition, the
success of Far Cry 3 confirmed our strong comeback in the major segment of
shooter games.” Guillemot continued "We began fiscal 2012-13 with two major
franchises: Assassin’s Creed and Just Dance. Twelve months later, we have
substantially extended our reach by establishing Far Cry as another major
franchise, building upon the great potential for our newest brand, Watch Dogs,
and making our online/digital segment an increasingly significant part of our
business. The steady rise in our operating and financial performance during the
last three years is the direct result of the longterm investments we have made,
with the continued development of our creative capacity and the bolstering of
our expertise in online activities.”

Platform unification was bound to happen, the PC was too fragmented to support going forward and we were seeing the slow death of the PC gaming industry before digital platforms. Besides there is plenty of Steam competition from other platforms now, what people are really upset about is the death of the traditional ownership model which has changed permanently (Steam or not).

Verno wrote on May 17, 2013, 08:45:Ok, have fun going backward in time but I'll keep most of my modern conveniences thanks and who are we kidding, you won't give them up either I have zero desire to track down manual patches from mirror servers and keep track of people through 10 different messaging programs. The DRM portion of Steam is quite benign and the convenience the service affords combined with the product prices make it irrelevant.

I already buy games outside of Steam, lots and lots and lots.

It doesn't take long to go to the official site or gamershell or filefront etc. for patches.

And did you really ever have 10 different messaging programs, no... there was what 4? at most that were popular back in mid/early 2000. Skype is the best thing out there at the moment.

Plenty of good sales, actually all the good sales are now outside of Steam. Amazon and GMG have them beat and have done for at least 18 months.

Remember kiddies, DRM is only good if it's Valve's. At least that seems to be the message around here.

Not sure if you've ever bothered reading any threads about this topic but I'll summarize:

1) DRM is bad.2) Steam's non-DRM features are good.3) Steam's good features outweigh the downsides of its DRM.

That's why people like Steam. It's not really rocket science. Standalone DRM is completely worthless, as it offers no benefits to the consumer. Steam offers plenty of benefits to the consumer so the consumer is far more tolerant of the DRM.

People who trade freedom for security and convenience are fools. Why forcefully put shackles on someone when you can get the fools to willing do it themselves.

"I like all my games in one spot", like the games folder under D drive or H drive or whatever you want to call it?

"But I can chat to my friends", like on Skype or the telephone?

DRM is always bad, you have to believe that

Ok, have fun going backward in time but I'll keep most of my modern conveniences thanks and who are we kidding, you won't give them up either I have zero desire to track down manual patches from mirror servers and keep track of people through 10 different messaging programs. The DRM portion of Steam is quite benign and the convenience the service affords combined with the product prices make it irrelevant.

Remember kiddies, DRM is only good if it's Valve's. At least that seems to be the message around here.

Not sure if you've ever bothered reading any threads about this topic but I'll summarize:

1) DRM is bad.2) Steam's non-DRM features are good.3) Steam's good features outweigh the downsides of its DRM.

That's why people like Steam. It's not really rocket science. Standalone DRM is completely worthless, as it offers no benefits to the consumer. Steam offers plenty of benefits to the consumer so the consumer is far more tolerant of the DRM.

People who trade freedom for security and convenience are fools. Why forcefully put shackles on someone when you can get the fools to willing do it themselves.

"I like all my games in one spot", like the games folder under D drive or H drive or whatever you want to call it?

"But I can chat to my friends", like on Skype or the telephone?

DRM is always bad, you have to believe that

Doesn't living in society trade freedom for security and convenience?If I move to Antarctica I can be free. I can kill who or what I want, eat who or what I want, bang who or what I want... pure freedom! No one can stop me from doing anything!

But, honestly, here in the states I can kill who or what I want, because I don't want to kill anything, I can eat who or what I want, because it isn't as if I'm eating endangered animals or the most dangerous animal, and I can bang who or what I want, because I'm not into rape.So I cheerfully give up those freedoms for convenience of living in a place that is secure.

People that say things like "people who trade freedom for security and convenience are fools" tend to be fools.

Spektr wrote on May 16, 2013, 12:07:I don't like Steam. In fact I hate it. I dont wanna install all my games on the same partition because I have several partitions. I can patch my games myself all it takes is a download and a click. Very technical huh. And all the bells and whistles like the achievements and such that are supposed to be the latest craze (Oh What a turn on) whereas the software itself belongs to the Prehistory of interface coding. I hate it and I don't care that you like it. I hate it because I am forced to use it. I dont want it on my hard disk thank you. I only want the games.

You should run Linux too because damn the man, Windows is DRM duuuuuude!

Remember kiddies, DRM is only good if it's Valve's. At least that seems to be the message around here.

Not sure if you've ever bothered reading any threads about this topic but I'll summarize:

1) DRM is bad.2) Steam's non-DRM features are good.3) Steam's good features outweigh the downsides of its DRM.

That's why people like Steam. It's not really rocket science. Standalone DRM is completely worthless, as it offers no benefits to the consumer. Steam offers plenty of benefits to the consumer so the consumer is far more tolerant of the DRM.

People who trade freedom for security and convenience are fools. Why forcefully put shackles on someone when you can get the fools to willing do it themselves.

"I like all my games in one spot", like the games folder under D drive or H drive or whatever you want to call it?

Remember kiddies, DRM is only good if it's Valve's. At least that seems to be the message around here.

Not sure if you've ever bothered reading any threads about this topic but I'll summarize:

1) DRM is bad.2) Steam's non-DRM features are good.3) Steam's good features outweigh the downsides of its DRM.

That's why people like Steam. It's not really rocket science. Standalone DRM is completely worthless, as it offers no benefits to the consumer. Steam offers plenty of benefits to the consumer so the consumer is far more tolerant of the DRM.

Don't bother. Rollinthunder is a troll. He throws in garbage like that whether or not it makes sense or relevent to the topic. His points are easily refutable but that doesn't stop him from regurgitating them over and over. Put him on ignore or just laugh at his stupidity, but just don't feed him.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Remember kiddies, DRM is only good if it's Valve's. At least that seems to be the message around here.

Not sure if you've ever bothered reading any threads about this topic but I'll summarize:

1) DRM is bad.2) Steam's non-DRM features are good.3) Steam's good features outweigh the downsides of its DRM.

That's why people like Steam. It's not really rocket science. Standalone DRM is completely worthless, as it offers no benefits to the consumer. Steam offers plenty of benefits to the consumer so the consumer is far more tolerant of the DRM.

Jerykk wrote on May 16, 2013, 01:23:Ubisoft's PC games would sell more if they just ditched Uplay completely and switched to Steamworks. Also, simultaneous release dates with the console versions makes a huge difference too.

I disagree and there is no facts to back up what you say any way lol.

I have absolutely no problem with Uplay, it's kind of okay. I'm tired of Valve and Steamworks. I don't even remember the last game I actually bought through Steam... but plenty of Steamworks games. I don't want all my games in Steam. I don't want ANY of MY games tied to any DRM thing. Always look for the DRM free alternative if I can.

The mass amount of stupid people that buy a steam copy of a game on gog.com amazes and saddens me.

Remember kiddies, DRM is only good if it's Valve's. At least that seems to be the message around here.

Luke wrote on May 16, 2013, 08:40:All i want is to buy a game install it without any of top 3 spyware software : 1 steam 2 uplay 3 gfwl

ohh and back then you got a nice box with paper manual and all funny stuff now...you get a browser window telling you how many games you have and don't get me started on that shitty DLC , guess peps are to lazy to move there a.. to go out and buy there games sooo easy to sit on your a... click and you got your game.

Most PC games don't even have a retail releases any more.

Materialism isn't something to be proud of by the way.

But everyone else is lazy because you have a compulsive need to have something pretty on the shelf to look at? /facepalm

don't hit your self to hard you like spyware i don't , and yes you can still get retail games tho to know that you have to get outside...to hard for some i guess

You can still get "some" PC games at retail. Most you cannot. And the majority of the few titles still sold at retail are increasingly becoming Steamworks titles, or in the case of EA games, Origin titles.

The argument of Steam being spyware is long over, and you lost. If you still think it is spyware, then you are a stupid idiot that probably thinks the moon landing was done at a studio in hollywood.

But you stay strong, don't play any game that uses a digital distro service. As the rest of the world moves forward, we won't miss you.

Now looking at your post history, you basically never have anything of intelligence to contribute. I'll just ignore you now and save myself from any more idiotic ramblings.

Luke wrote on May 16, 2013, 08:40:All i want is to buy a game install it without any of top 3 spyware software : 1 steam 2 uplay 3 gfwl

ohh and back then you got a nice box with paper manual and all funny stuff now...you get a browser window telling you how many games you have and don't get me started on that shitty DLC , guess peps are to lazy to move there a.. to go out and buy there games sooo easy to sit on your a... click and you got your game.

Most PC games don't even have a retail releases any more.

Materialism isn't something to be proud of by the way.

But everyone else is lazy because you have a compulsive need to have something pretty on the shelf to look at? /facepalm

don't hit your self to hard you like spyware i don't , and yes you can still get retail games tho to know that you have to get outside...to hard for some i guess

Luke wrote on May 16, 2013, 08:40:All i want is to buy a game install it without any of top 3 spyware software : 1 steam 2 uplay 3 gfwl

ohh and back then you got a nice box with paper manual and all funny stuff now...you get a browser window telling you how many games you have and don't get me started on that shitty DLC , guess peps are to lazy to move there a.. to go out and buy there games sooo easy to sit on your a... click and you got your game.

Most PC games don't even have a retail releases any more.

Materialism isn't something to be proud of by the way.

But everyone else is lazy because you have a compulsive need to have something pretty on the shelf to look at? /facepalm

Verno wrote on May 16, 2013, 08:39:You have to give Ubisoft credit, they are actually creating new brands and IP instead of sitting on their laurels. They won't all work out (1666) but they're managing to give people a mix of old and new. I like their approach with uplay more than EA/Origin too.

I love the AC series (AC3 a little less, but the pirates one looks cool), Far Cry 3 looks great (still need to pick it up) and is getting a lot of love, Blood Dragon is great, Watch Dogs looks really cool and I'm very much looking forward to it, and I've absolutely played the living fuck out of Anno2070 to the point that I actually feel bad the devs only got like $35 out of me for it.

If I tried to come up with any other publisher with such a list in the space of a year, either current or past, I'd draw a big fat blank.

So yeah, I'd definitely agree that Ubisoft deserves its current success. Let's hope they don't go full retard again.

(One annoying niggle: The way I have to launch TWO fucking digital platforms to play a single game. Really Ubisoft? You can't figure this out in some other way? Why do my Steam titles not show up in your shitty Uplay app if I launch Uplay directly? This is the most horseshit way you could have possibly implemented this.)

I don't like Steam. In fact I hate it. I dont wanna install all my games on the same partition because I have several partitions. I can patch my games myself all it takes is a download and a click. Very technical huh. And all the bells and whistles like the achievements and such that are supposed to be the latest craze (Oh What a turn on) whereas the software itself belongs to the Prehistory of interface coding. I hate it and I don't care that you like it. I hate it because I am forced to use it. I dont want it on my hard disk thank you. I only want the games.

All i want is to buy a game install it without any of top 3 spyware software : 1 steam 2 uplay 3 gfwl

ohh and back then you got a nice box with paper manual and all funny stuff now...you get a browser window telling you how many games you have and don't get me started on that shitty DLC , guess peps are to lazy to move there a.. to go out and buy there games sooo easy to sit on your a... click and you got your game.